Chapter 309 Breaking Free from the Cocoon and Becoming a Butterfly: Stepping into the Starry Sky via

As the Alliance's supreme commander issued his extremely calm yet weighty command, the red countdown numbers in the massive unloading area of ​​Kyoto's First Base reached zero.

There was no lengthy farewell ceremony, nor any deliberate expression of sorrow or parting.

Accompanied by a series of dull mechanical clicking sounds, the first batch of fully assembled interstellar expeditionary force members silently and swiftly crossed the fully enclosed pier and stepped into the third-generation heavy-load transport pod.

Behind them are tons of titanium crystal preforms, high-order array disks, high-pressure life support modules, and cutting arms and heavy swords that will accompany them through the long years in the vacuum.

Below the base, the ground crew—including ordinary engineers, train dispatchers, array maintenance personnel, and representatives from the military and academy of sciences—stood silently in the biting cold wind. No one waved or shouted; they simply looked up, watching as the rows of transport capsules, resembling lurking behemoths, were steadily pushed into the priority track of the space elevator by massive hydraulic robotic arms.

This was an extremely hardcore farewell ceremony, belonging to the industrial cultivation civilization.

The entire planet is sending its most elite first pioneers up into the heavens along the steel backbone it forged itself.

"The pressure in the first to fifteenth pressure-bearing sections of the main cable is stable."

"Traction array activated. Anti-gravity rune array, operating at full power."

boom--!

The dark blue plasma tail flames burst forth with dazzling light on the guide wall, and the enormous thrust instantly lifted the heavy hull.

Inside the transport capsule, Chen Shi, from the engineering development unit, was pressed firmly into the pressure-resistant seat. He turned his head and glanced at his side. There sat a sword cultivator from the escort combat unit, his eyes closed, the heavy sword infused with star materials resting on his lap, his breathing extremely steady as he adjusted his true energy to adapt to the drastically changing atmospheric pressure.

Before this, Chen Shi had been to the heavens, and this sword cultivator had also been to the heavens.

Back then, one was a seconded worker, and the other a temporary security guard. Now, Chen Shi's tactical robe bears an emblem representing the project's pioneering spirit, while the swordsman's shoulder is adorned with starlight symbolizing escort combat.

Once your identity changes, your mindset becomes completely different.

Through the heavy porthole, Chen Shi looked at the outside world.

The once bustling Kyoto fortress city quickly shrank into a glowing patch, and the crisscrossing mountains and rivers, as well as the beast tide defense line that stretched across the wilderness, all receded rapidly from view.

50,000 meters, penetrating the stratosphere.

At 100,000 meters, the sky began to fade from deep blue to pure black.

No one spoke inside the cabin; only the low-frequency hum of the pressure relief array could be heard. But everyone could clearly feel that something long bound to their genes was breaking down completely as the altitude increased.

......

At the same time, the central squares of major fortified cities on the surface, the late-night canteen of Zhongyuan Heavy Industry, the front-line duty stations of the Southern Theater Command, and even the Mingshan garrison deep in Kunlun.

Countless people stopped in front of the holographic projection.

On the screen, the several streaks of azure light rapidly ascending along the main cable of the space elevator resembled shooting stars streaking across the dark night of Earth.

An old fitter covered in oil took off his goggles, looked at the screen, and his rough fingers trembled slightly; a veteran stationed at the edge of the defense line silently wiped his rifle and looked up at the dark night sky.

At this moment, for the first time, billions of people on this planet reached a profoundly genuine consensus:

Earth is no longer an isolated island that can only be passively defended.

That main cable, piercing straight into the sky, truly became a road to heaven.

Two hours later. Two hundred kilometers of high-speed rail.

"Attention all units, the first batch of expeditionary transport capsules is approaching. Damping array activated, prepare for docking."

With the cold, hard commands from the forward base pilot, the seven massive, heavy-duty transport pods decelerated with extreme precision in the vacuum and slowly glided into the docking berth of the forward base.

Click—!

The heavy physical locks snapped shut, and the green light on the airlock illuminated.

The hatch slid open to both sides. There was no gravity, no strong wind, only the faint sound of air circulation from the base's life support system, and the extremely low vibration of true energy emanating from the distant cold forging platform.

Chen Shi unlocked the safety lock and floated out of the cabin with the group.

What you see is no longer the chaotic construction site it was half a month ago.

The cold indicator lights drew clear movement lines on the floor: "Escort sequence, please proceed to the combat readiness cabin via the A area passage"; "Engineering and formation sequence, please proceed to the C area to complete equipment requisition." Above, the previously exposed pipelines were now covered by thick explosion-proof titanium crystal plates; in the distance, outside the porthole, four mineral-rich meteorites were neatly locked in the mooring area, like tamed cosmic behemoths.

The miniature star-gathering platform emitted a deep purple glow in the darkness, methodically channeling stellar energy along the main cable towards the Earth's core.

This fortress, which grew wildly in the vacuum, has, for the first time, shed its roughness as a "mining site" after welcoming its actual garrison, revealing the coldness and severity that a "deep space outpost" should have.

Before heading to their respective assigned areas, Chen Shi, the swordsman in the same cabin, and many other members who were arriving on high orbit for the first time as members of the expeditionary force all stopped in front of the base's largest panoramic porthole.

No one urged them at this time.

Chen Shi floated in front of the porthole, looking down.

It was an incredibly breathtaking scene. The vast, deep expanse of Earth stretched out below, thick clouds intertwined with the azure ocean, and the twinkling lights of cities resembled faint starlight in the night hemisphere. Their mother planet, which had nurtured them yet also imprisoned them for millennia, now floated silently beneath their feet.

He slowly raised his head and looked straight ahead.

There was endless darkness, absolute cold and deathly silence, and an endless abyss and a vast sea of ​​stars hidden in the darkness.

Behind him was the Starship Base, roaring and sparking, a nail driven into the universe by humanity with countless lives, resources, and array plates.

In that instant, everyone standing by the porthole understood.

They finally understood what they were standing on. It wasn't an ordinary steel plate; it was the first backbone of Earth's civilization reaching into the universe.

Emerging from the cocoon to become a butterfly.

From that moment on, humanity bid farewell to the era when it could only gaze at the stars from within the atmosphere. They stepped onto the steel ladder they had built themselves.

Earth is merely the starting point for this vast civilization to begin anew.

The 200-kilometer-long high-speed rail is by no means the end of this expedition.

On this cold and profound cosmic canvas, the faint light of the Star Advance Base points towards an even more desolate and vast expanse 380,000 kilometers away.